JEE Advanced reports show IITs cut hundreds of BTech seats in core engineering; here’s what happened

Over 10 years and a few dozen at a time, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) have quietly culled hundreds of BTech seats in core engineering branches. In some IITs, branches like chemical, textile, mining, metallurgy and materials, have lost around half of their seats, shows an analysis of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE Advanced) seat matrix data across 10 years.

For example, IIT Delhi has 48.07% fewer seats in BTech Textile Engineering in 2025 than it did in 2015. Similarly, IIT Roorkee has shed over half its seats – 54.5% – in metallurgical and materials engineering over the same period. It has also discontinued its undergraduate programmes in biotechnology and polymer science and engineering.

Such decline, however, comes with corresponding increase in seats and new branches in computer sciences, information technology (IT) and related branches. The total number of seats in the IITs has gone up by over 80%, from 10,006 in 2015 to 18,160 in 2025.

To trace the changes, Academia360 considered data on seats from the Joint Implementation Committee reports of the IITs. Each JIC report is compiled by whichever IIT is responsible for conducting the JEE Advanced in a year and contains details on seats, branches, question papers and student performance. Branch-wise seat matrices weren’t available for 2016 and 2017.

JEE Advanced 2026 is on May 17 and IIT Roorkee is responsible for organising the exam.

JEE Advanced Reports: Open seats

Academia360 looked at seats in the eight oldest IITs – Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) - Varanasi, Roorkee and Indian School of Mines (ISM) Dhanbad – as declared in the JIC reports after each round of the IIT entrance exam, JEE Advanced, from 2015 to 2025. Three of these were highly-regarded standalone or university engineering colleges that were converted into IITs in the 2000s.

Only the numbers of open, unreserved seats were considered. This is because the total number of seats in the IITs – indeed all of public education – rose with the introduction of the 10% economically weaker section (EWS) quota in January, 2019. The overall increase was to ensure that the count of unreserved seats would not drop, even though their share in the total was shrinking by 10 percentage points – from 50.5% to 40.5%. IITs also have supernumerary seats for women and children of defence personnel, and horizontal reservation for disabled candidates. Only unreserved seats, open to all castes, genders and abilities, were considered.

Between 2015 and 2025, many core branches lost seats at the undergraduate level. These include chemical engineering, materials science, and mineral and mining engineering across the eight. Decline in open seats typically implies a proportionate drop in the total.

IIT Roorkee, IIT Delhi: The deepest cuts

Of all departments across the eight IITs, IIT Roorkee’s metallurgical and materials engineering has seen the deepest cut. Over the decade, it lost 54.55% of its BTech seats. IIT Delhi’s textile engineering department has seen a similar decline – 48.07%. The table below shows the 10 departments that have seen their undergraduate intake fall by 30% or more.

Source: JIC Reports 2015-2025, Open seats only

Some branches, like biotechnology and polymer science and engineering, were discontinued at IIT Roorkee. Biotechnology had 45 seats in total – 23 open – in 2015. By 2018, the institute had reduced the count to 35 and 15, respectively. The EWS quota led to an increase in 2019 and 2020 but in 2021, IIT Roorkee withdrew the programme altogether. Polymer science and engineering went through the exact same journey of cuts from 2015 to 2018, then increase and finally, discontinuation in 2021.

Professors – currently teaching or retired – from departments that have lost seats cited a host of reasons for the cuts. These include push for better positions on international rankings, curriculum revision, rationalisation of pupil-teacher ratio and budget constraints.

A part of it was down to policy decisions. From 2014 to 2016, the government noticed seats going vacant in the IITs and National Institutes of Technology (NIT). A three-member committee, headed by the director of IIT Kharagpur, recommended that the IITs, NITs and centrally funded technical institutes (CFTI) take steps “to reduce the seats or discontinue unpopular courses”, the Indian Express reported in 2017.

Metallurgical, materials science, mining engineering

While multiple branches have faced cuts across institutes, none has as drastically as metallurgical and material engineering and its allied branches. These have lost at least 20% seats across all the eight oldest IITs, as the table below shows.

Source: JIC Reports, 2015-2025

“If you look at the demand for basic engineering, it has drastically reduced all over India. Further, branches like mining and metallurgical and its allies are hardly getting their tentative seats fully occupied. This is due to the new domains associated with artificial intelligence and its associated areas which are attracting the new generation of students,” a former professor from IIT ISM Dhanbad, who did not want to be named, stated.

Placements are a key factor. “People will go where there is a lot of money. In core branches, students get less money. Hence, the reason for decline,” said an IIT Delhi professor, asking not to be named. Engineering college placements in core engineering have been tepid for years and when they have bounced back, it has been on the strength of non-core add-ons and minor degrees.

“The world is driven by the market,” said a retired IIT ISM Dhanbad professor. “If you create a market for mining and minerals, you will get students. However, these branches have not been able to create a strong market or create as many opportunities as artificial intelligence.” He added that despite IIT ISM Dhanbad’s being one of the oldest engineering colleges in India – Indian School of Mines was set up in 1926 – it has been unable to “hold on to the glory of the past”. “The market runs not on legacy but on marketability, opportunities and money for any branch to flourish,” he said.

IIT Admissions: Seat cuts in textile, chemical engineering

Another set of branches to lose seats are textile engineering and, surprisingly, chemical engineering which has lost over a third of its seats in three IITs.

The table below shows the decline in counts of both open and total seats.

Source: JIC Reports, 2015-2025

A professor from IIT Delhi, who did not want to be named, pointed out that Delhi was the first among the IITs to offer textile engineering as a branch. The department was founded in 1961. He added that because the institute has opened new departments and courses and with limited residential area, many course seats have been “rationalised”.

“IIT Delhi in the last few years has opened a department of design along with new programmes, including BTech in materials engineering and BTech in computational mechanics, from 2020 onwards,” he said. “As we have limited seats, sometimes we need to rationalise between the departments.”

A professor of chemical engineering, previously with IIT Kanpur, sees the decline in seats in his branch as an “indication of market forces and social factors”. IT and computer science-oriented disciplines have better job opportunities that IIT students seek

As some departments saw seat cuts, some saw their numbers increase. Predictably, BTech CSE and allied branches saw the number of seats allocated to them rise.

“In today’s time, students are driven towards computer engineering and artificial intelligence because that's where the money is flowing. No one wants to work in core sectors where placements and packages are less,” said a retired professor from IIT ISM Dhanbad.

Ranking, EWS quota, new programmes

“There's a big push for better rankings which requires a certain teacher-student ratio,” said a professor from IIT Delhi. “Curriculum reviews may lead to a change in number as well. Also, institutes are introducing new programmes. Some redistribution of seats happened due to this.” However, he strongly suggested that international rankings were a key factor. “The institute has to show India is ranking on the world arena, which is also a push from the government,” he added.

Another IIT Delhi professor agreed on the new-programmes part. “When new branches are opened, the seats of other branches are removed,” he said.

The pattern of cuts changes with the institute. One set of departments culled a large number of seats from 2015 to 2018 – the JIC reports from 2016 and 2017 do not contain seat distribution data. These include metallurgical and materials engineering at IIT Roorkee and materials science and engineering at IIT Kanpur.

In others, the seat count remained more or less constant from 2015 to 2018 after which, the EWS quota changed things. Its implementation was staggered over two years in the IITs and the years after 2019 and 2020 show an increase in the total count of seats, across departments. When it came to rationalising a few years later, the axe fell mainly on traditional, core engineering branches.

“The IITs have an upper cap on the number of students they can accommodate on campus and if there is a greater demand for MBAs and computer science or electrical engineering, they will increase the seats in these courses and decrease somewhere else,” said the chemical engineering professor who now teaches at a second-generation IIT.

To some IITs, where the numbers swelled most dramatically, the cuts came as late as 2025. IIT Bombay’s total of metallurgical and materials engineering seats fell from 112 in 2024 to just 83 in 2025; the total had reached 141 in 2022 after which it started falling by about 10 a year. Curiously, even in 2023, when this branch of BTech had 132 seats total, the number of open seats was just 41. Similarly, IIT ISM Dhanbad’s seats in mining engineering fell from 103 to 72 in just one year – from 2024 to 2025. It had risen to 103 following the introduction of the 10% EWS quota.

A former IIT Delhi professor said there has been push from the government to rationalise seats but “IITs are autonomous institutions and they don't have to abide by any order unless it's statutory or some bill is passed which makes it mandatory for IITs”. “They don't have to comply with the seat cuts. The senate of these IITs must take into account all of these things and push back,” he argued.

The seats that remain, have takers. Another teacher pointed out, “Despite the demand for mechanical, civil and other core branches going down, in an IIT, no matter the discipline – whether it is metallurgy or mining or textile engineering – all the seats remain full.